Writing in the second half of the 19th century about Arabic Sicily, Sicilian historian and orientalist Michele Amari (1806-89) refers to three well-known ‘Maltese’ poets – Ibn as Samanti al Maliti, Ibn al Qasim ibn Ramadan al Maliti and Utman ibn Abd ar Rahman called Ibn as Susi – who lived in the first half of the 12th century but who, however, expounded their verses in Arabic.

By 1240, there was still a great number of Arabs living in the Maltese islands but, after their expulsion in 1249, according to Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), the Arabic then spoken locally – already much evolved from the classical form – must have started to fall under the increasing influence of Sicilian and other European languages, thus bringing about developments in vocabulary, syntax and morphology.

Professor Godfrey Wettinger (1929-2015), co-discoverer of Peter Caxaro’s Cantilena.

In the medieval Malta, Latin replaced Arabic as the language of administration and culture, and Italian in its Sicilian form crept in during the 15th century. But the Maltese language was disregarded even though it was spoken by the populace at large. It seems that hardly anyone wrote anything in Maltese and, in fact, no writing in Maltese dating back to the late Middle Ages was ever found before 1966. In that year, there was the discovery of a Cantilena written in the 15th century. Its author was Peter Caxaro, who died in August 1485, thus forming the basis of this month’s story.

On September 22, 1966, Dr (later Professor) Godfrey Wettinger (1929-2015) and Rev. Michael Fsadni, OP, (1916-2013) were researching, as they had done on many occasions, at the Notarial Archives of Valletta. On this occasion, they came across a poem, known as a Cantilena, written in medieval Maltese by Peter Caxaro, which was bound in the first volume of the notarial deeds published by Notary Rev. Brandan de Caxario (c.1508-65) between December 4, 1533, and May 26, 1536. At the end of the volume, there are eight unnumbered empty folios: the Cantilena is written on the back of folio number six.

Although it was an accidental discovery, it was also a momentous and very important find. Previously, it was held that the earliest evidence of written Maltese was the poem by G. F. Bonamico (1639-80), a medical doctor who dedicated it to Grand Master Nicholas Cotoner (1663-80) in c.1672-5. This poem had been discovered in the manuscript collection of G.P. Agius de Soldanis, the Gozitan scholar and Malta’s first librarian of the Public Library, and it was assumed that Bonamico’s effort was just a sporadic attempt to write in Maltese.

Fr Michael Fsadni, OP, (1916-2013), co-discoverer of Peter Caxaro’s Cantilena.

However, the 1966 discovery effectively pushed back the date of written Maltese by about two centuries. The two researchers, Fsadni and Wettinger, then carried out a meticulous survey of the period and presented a publication, now virtually unobtainable, titled Peter Caxaro’s Cantilena, a Poem in Medieval Maltese (Malta, 1968), a book which was updated and revised before it was again published, this time in Maltese, under the title L-Għanja ta’ Pietru Caxaru, Poeżija bil-Malti Medjevali (Malta, 1983), now also virtually unobtainable.

These two books contain not only a detailed analysis of the Cantilena but also include information about the poem’s discovery, the search for early examples of written Maltese, the authorship of the poem, the place of the Maltese language and cultural life in Malta in those times, and the place of the Cantilena in Maltese literature. The authors also presented biographical notes about Caxaro, about whom nothing was previously known.

There has been speculation about which one of the two researchers made the actual discovery. However, Fsadni and Wettinger had a personal agreement that they would always present the discovery as a joint one, and carried this agreement to their graves. I strongly believe that their wish should be fully respected and one should always refer to them as the co-discoverers of the Cantilena.

Facsimile of Peter Caxaro’s handwriting in Univ. 11, f. 31. Courtesy: National Library of Malta

No writing in Maltese dating back to the late Middle Ages was ever found before 1966

Brandan de Caxario attributed the authorship of the Cantilena to Peter de Caxaro, who the same Brandan described as his “late ancestor” who was also “a philosopher, poet and orator”. The poem, as already stated, is bound with Brandan’s notarial deeds for the period 1533-36 but an introductory note in Latin states that it had been “written a long time ago”.

Fifteenth- and 16th-century records include several Caxaros who were prominent in the public affairs of the Maltese islands; among them there was Peter Caxaro, particularly for the period 1450-83. Peter was the son of Leo and Zuna and had at least one brother named Nicholas and a sister (name unknown to date) who had a daughter named Jacuba. His date of birth is unknown (so far anyway).

Transliteration of the Cantilena into modern Maltese orthography. Source: Wettinger & Fsadni’s publication of 1983, page 48

On April 1, 1438, Peter Caxaro obtained the warrant of a notary public for the Maltese islands, after being approved in examinations held at Palermo by the protonotary (protonotario) of Sicily. However, not one single reference has ever been discovered (so far) attesting to any notarial work carried out by him; it may, therefore, be assumed that he either never exercised his profession or he did so for only a very short period.

In 1440, Caxaro was appointed judge for Gozo and then also held this office in Malta in 1441. Later on, he was to be appointed to a number of public offices and, on various occasions, he was a judge, a jurat and notary to the Mdina Town Council (or town clerk).

Apparently, he never married. The extant part of his will, drawn up on August 2, 1485, and other documents pertaining to the legacies he bequeathed, never mention a wife or offspring, but, conversely, do mention his slaves or former slaves. Caxaro was once going to marry Francha de Biglera, a widow, but the lady apparently changed her mind. At any rate, no document attests to any marriage contracted by Caxaro.

Line by line rendering of the Cantilena into English. Source: Wettinger & Fsadni’s 1968 publication, page 38

He passed away soon after drawing up his will but the exact date of his demise is unknown, though documentation states that he was already dead by the end of August 1485. He was buried in the chapel built at his own expense in the Dominican church of Our Lady of the Grotto at Rabat, Malta. He owned quite extensive property, including two houses in Mdina, various stretches of land and fields, a vineyard and a farmhouse. It is not known which of this property, if any, was held on long lease only.

As one would expect, the records of the Town Council provide information on Caxaro’s oratorial abilities, which seem to have been considerable, but say nothing about his philosophical or poetic interests. Indeed, the Cantilena is his only surviving literary effort. Yet Brandan de Caxario wrote – and there is no reason to doubt him – that someone wrote of Peter: “Manufacture a pen for Caxaro, I entreat you, O noble progeny: let the nymphs seek thee; let thy Muse inspire thee.”

The 20-line-long Cantilena is divided into three unequal stanzas of six, four and 10 lines respectively. The poem is allegorical and refers to the unhappiness caused by the collapse of the house he had been constructing because he had built it in the wrong place. Naturally, Caxaro is referring to the collapse of a project close to his heart, probably the fact that his marriage plans to the already-mentioned Francha de Biglera had come to naught.

From the literary point of view, the Cantilena is not to be treated lightly. It has been analysed and discussed a number of times by literary experts and their comments show that Caxaro was no mean compiler of verses but knew the art of poetry-writing, an art perhaps learnt from a study of the classics.

The Cantilena demonstrates that the Maltese language was sometimes used to express higher feelings even as early as the 15th century. It helps to link the Arabic with Malta’s later literary traditions, bearing in mind that Caxaro lived a bare two centuries after the expulsion of the Arabs from Malta. It is, of course, Malta’s first-known Maltese poem written by a Maltese who well-deserved his inclusion in a set of Maltese commemorative postage stamps in October 1985, 500 years after his demise.

Acknowledgement

This article is mainly based on the two books written by Prof. Godfrey Wettinger and Fr Michael Fsadni, OP, mentioned in the text.

Joseph F. Grima, retired casual history lecturer, asst director of Education